Seth Rosenbloom brings a blast of the blues at the Burren

By Ed Symkus, Correspondent

Wednesday

Jan 9, 2019 at 3:56 PMJan 9, 2019 at 5:56 PM

Blues guitarist Seth Rosenbloom puts the blame squarely on the movie “School of Rock” for getting him interested in both playing guitar and playing blues on guitar, which is what he’ll be doing at the Burren in Somerville on Jan. 12 during his CD release gig for “Keep on Turning.”

Rosenbloom, 26, a Waltham native who lived for a bit in Tennessee and North Carolina, but is now settled back in Waltham, says that videos exist of him at least holding – he called it “banging around on” – a guitar when he was about 18 months old, but the violin was his first instrument. His mom and dad both played classical violin, his own lessons began at 4, and he stuck with it till 14. But when he was 11, he saw the Jack Black movie about a teacher who became a musical inspiration for his students.

“That movie sparked my interest,” said Rosenbloom. “After I saw it, with any money I had from Christmas or my birthday, I bought a guitar – a bright red Ibanez RG.”

Rosenbloom had already been exposed to a lot of different types of music by that point. Aside from his classical lessons, there were classical recordings that his dad liked, and his mom was constantly playing tracks by James Brown, Aretha Franklin and the Beatles. On top of that, his mom’s mom was a huge Elvis fan, and helped turn him into one.

But he returns to “School of Rock,” and another purchase after seeing it, to pinpoint when he believes he found a doorway to the blues.

“I got the soundtrack, which had Cream’s ‘Sunshine of Your Love’ and Zeppelin’s ‘Immigrant Song,’ a lot of late-’60s, early-’70s classic rock which, when you start tracing it back, you come to [blues men] Elmore James, B.B. King, and Albert King.

But there was still more exploring for Rosenbloom before he settled into a blues groove. When he was 13, he was caught up in the progressive metal sound of Dream Theater, and intended to see them play at the Orpheum in Boston.

“But my parents said no way are you going on your own,” he recalled. “Then my mom said, ‘Tell you what, I’ll take you to that concert if you go to any show that I pick.’ She wanted something more toward the jazz-blues-classic rock type stuff than Dream Theater. She found a listing in the paper, had no idea who it was, but it was at Scullers, and there was a favorable write-up. It turned out to be [blues-rocker] Joe Bonamassa. I went, feeling not too pleased about it, but then he came out with a gold Strat and a Marshall stack, and I thought it was the coolest thing ever. So, it wasn’t an immediate switch-over to me wanting to play blues, but that definitely lit the spark.”

Rosenbloom started playing in bands in high school – initially it was instrumental prog-metal covers – and was in the first one under his own name at 17.

“Then I started doing shows with more blues material, but I hired a singer,” he said. “And about two years ago I first fronted the band myself, playing and singing.”

There have been different members in his band over the years, and he used a group of Los Angeles sessions players to record “Keep on Turning.” But the Burren show will feature a bunch of local musicians who have become regulars: Dave Fox on drums, Jesse Williams on bass, and if scheduling works out, Bruce Bears on keyboards.

The album’s songs are a mix of Rosenbloom originals, some of which he cowrote with his blues friend Sonya Rae Taylor, and covers including B.B. King’s “Heartbreaker” and Elmore James’ “Look Over Yonders Wall.”

Though most of the album favors a barebones, straight-ahead blues sound, there are exceptions, the most outstanding of which is a horn- and background vocal-drenched version of “Palace of the King,” best known for Freddie King’s cover of it. Rosenbloom has no worries about performing it without the frills.

“That will be on the set list,” he said. “On the recording, the horns and background vocals definitely make it big and give it that sound, but it also works stripped down, with the one vocal. As long as those big [guitar] chords still happen.”

And though he could dig deep into the history of the blues for that set list, the plan is to stick to his current material.

“I’ve held back a lot of the stuff from the album,” he said. “I think I’ve only played two of them live. But this will be the first show where I’m playing a full set of songs off the new album.”

Seth Rosenbloom has a CD release show for “Keep on Turning” at the Burren in Somerville on Jan. 12 at 7 p.m. Sonya Rae Taylor & Ryan Taylor open. Tickets: $19. Info: 617-776-6896.

Upcoming concerts and club dates

Jan. 12:

Ball in the House, the five-member Boston-based a cappella group that mixes R&B, soul, and pop, performs at Amazing Things Arts Center in Framingham. (8 p.m.)

One Night Band is a one-day happening in which 40 Boston musicians are randomly formed into on-the-spot quintets, first writing three original tunes, and agreeing on one cover, then performing it all that night – at the Sinclair in Cambridge. (8 p.m.)

Gene Dante and the Starlets play original songs with an ’80s art rock vibe at Once Ballroom in Somerville. The Gala, Tiger Bomb, and Smitt E. Smitty open. (8 p.m.)

Jan. 13:

The Boston-based vocal ensemble Culomba will feature American folk songs as well as music from the Balkans, South Africa, the Mediterranean, and more at Club Passim in Cambridge. (7 p.m.)

Expect the musical unexpected when the Chandler Travis Philharmonic returns to the Midway Café in Jamaica Plain. (4 p.m.)

Jan. 15:

Boston-based folk-rock trio The Great Molasses Flood will record a live album at Club Passim in Cambridge. (8 p.m.)

Jan. 16:

Guitarist Lyle Brewer goes the instrumental route with original songs that take in folk, jazz, and classical at Lilypad in Cambridge. (8:30 p.m.)